This 0.5-credit course introduces students to the nature of quantitative research in geography and the spatial sciences through the statistical analysis of social, environmental, and spatial data. This research methods course is thus unique within the department in illustrating the analytic commonalities between human and environmental geography. Students develop a critical perspective on issues of measurement of empirical data collected or available to geographers. Students consider the implications for validity and reliability in measurement of social and environmental geographic concepts using quantitative methods of measurement and data collection. Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to data collection and sampling of social, environmental, and spatial data are demonstrated. Students actively engage in the statistical analysis of geographic data to both describe frequency distributions of social, physical, and spatial characteristics, and to explain patterns of variation in outcome variable using statistical modeling. Students are challenged to undertake hypothesis testing and multivariate statistical analysis as well as to effective communicate the results of statistical analyses to readers of all subdisciplines of geography. Not open to students who have completed MATH 102/CORE 143S or BIOL 220.